A map from the Gulu Walk Web site flags the locations of walks around the globe. A walk was held in Boulder Saturday afternoon to raise awareness about conditions in Northern Uganda. (Courtesy of guluwalk.com)
The Boulder community is taking notice of the toll war has taken in Northern Uganda and is working to create positive change for those in need.
Community members took part in a walk hosted by GuluWalk, an international organization that works to raise awareness of the 20 year war in Northern Uganda.
The event took place at 3 p.m. on Oct. 24. It began outside the University Memorial Center, according to the GuluWalk Web site, and lasted for one mile. Participants walked from Broadway Street to Arapahoe Avenue, continued to 17th Street, and ended their walk at Old Main.
The walk is an annual event that takes place across the globe, according to the Web site.
The walk in Boulder is sponsored by Bead for Life, a local non-profit organization founded in 2004, according to BeadforLife.org.
Patty Manwaring, the education manager at Bead for Life, described the goals and objectives of the organization.
“Our previous goal was to raise awareness about the war in Northern Uganda,” Manwaring said. “Now we have been focused on rebuilding and developing Uganda, creating an interest in the CU community to purchase jewelry and eradicate poverty.”
Bead for Life offers bead parties that enable people all over the world to get together with friends and purchase the beads. All profits then go back to Uganda to fund educational programs and health care, said Nicole Givan, the fulfillment coordinator at Bead for Life.
Givan commented on the process of the organization.
“The women create the beads and jewelry in Uganda from hand-rolled, recycled paper; we purchase the beads at fair trade prices and sell them locally,” Givan said.
The Bead for Life organization has a chapter on the CU campus that is student-run. Students can volunteer with packaging and filling online orders at the Bead for Life office in Boulder, said Erika Nyhus, a psychology graduate student at CU.
Nyhus is the head of the CU Bead for Life chapter and said she is working to reinvigorate the chapter’s presence on the CU campus. She said Bead for Life is a unique organization.
“Bead For Life is amazing because 92 percent of the funds raised go directly to Uganda,” Nyhus said. “The main goal is to put the women through an 18 month business school so they can be sustainable in the future and educate the rest of the world to eradicate poverty.”
Lauren Bader, a junior international affairs major at CU, commented on her interest in GuluWalk.
“I was intrigued by the event because I am interested in this part of the world and the events that have happened there are horrible,” Bader said.
GuluWalk was followed by an African culture event of drumming, dancing and an ethnic meal at Old Main Chapel featuring a local African dance troupe called Logo Ligi.
For more information, the GuluWalk Web site can be accessed here.
The Bead for Life Web site can be accessed here.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Lauren Knobbe at Lauren.knobbe@colorado.edu.
